Passion First, The Rest Will Follow.

Osaka Auto Messe 2019 Coverage… Part 3…

I honestly can’t recall a period of time in the last few years when I’ve used my Canon dSLR as much as I have in my first few months of 2019. Hopefully crap—I’ve shot a SHIT TON of photos already this year. ‘Inspired’ would be a good word to use but I honestly l feel like I’m just re-energized…motivated even. Being in Japan definitely helps but having a new body to shoot with has been amazing in terms of my own productivity and photographic development. It’s just so much fun to shoot with this 5D MKIV and its helped incredibly in my creative process and confidence in shooting. You’d think with all the Vlogs coming out this year that I care more about video but photography is still what I enjoy the most. The Vlogs just come out first because they are so much easier to put together and engaging on YouTube. It’s always a battle though, whenever I’m at an event because I think in the back of my mind that I’m constantly worrying about running out of time. It’s like, what should I do first; photos or video? Which should I focus more on? What if I capture something on video that I can’t capture again with my dSLR? or vice versa? I guess it’s all about finding that balance. I try to capture as many ‘moments’ as I can on video because it just feels more personal when you can record emotions and words, but I still feel like photos have a longer-lasting effect. In any case, it’s not really something for you guys to figure out. I guess I’m just thinking out loud…err…I mean, in word-form. You know what really helps though? Being at an event for three straight days. Haha. I don’t really have to concern myself with running out of time to shoot photos or record video because there is so much time. Osaka Auto Messe is the type of event that I can really relax and have a lot of creative freedom at because there’s no stress. I even got to sit down. Imagine that. Anyways, this is the third and final installment of the Osaka Auto Messe 2019 show. I spent the last day of the event getting detail shots and just shooting whatever I saw. I hope you enjoy it…

This particular Mode Parfume GaMu S2000 is actually from the Tokyo-side of Japan, Chiba Prefecture to be exact. It’s a real imported USDM LHD S2000 as well and built by Masa Chiba from X-Point…

The engine bay has been highly customized with a lot of metal fabrication work and a turbocharged F22C engine utilizing a Sheepey manifold and Precision turbocharger…

Under the custom core support is a V-mounted intecooler and radiator set-up…

A glimpse of the custom aluminum core support and engine bay crossmember which has a slight angle to the dimpled beam…

Some more reinforcement with aluminum punched plates under the turbo…

Custom radiator filler section with one-off bent hard-lines…

Brake booster delete also using custom hard-lines and here you can see the Rywire engine harness under the new master cylinder…

Sheepey turbo manifold from a different angle…

One of the most extensively modified S2000 engine bays in Japan, executed with a lot of USDM-influenced aesthetics and products…

The Exceed-built Mode Parfume GaMu S2000 is different in that the rear over fenders have been molded to the factory body. This is Kohara Ikuto’s S2000 and is actually a combination of two different S2000 builds; the exterior is from Ikuto’s original S2000 and the chassis and engine bay is Yasu’s old Millenium Jade-painted S2000…

The engine bay has been smoothed-out and repainted black to match the exterior…

The centerpiece of the engine bay is the HKS GT-Supercharger of course, with all hardware converted to anodized purple pieces from Downstar Inc.

The brake booster has also been deleted in this bay with the new Wilwood brake master and slave cylinders using custom hard-lines bent by Yasu from Exceed…

While the crowd swarmed I was just trying to get a shot of the engine bay…

The hoard was distracted which gave me ample time to get some photos of this rare Nismo 400R. For those that don’t know, Nismo released a special version of the BNR33 GT-R and dubbed it simply as the ‘400R’. It drew inspiration appearance-wise from the 24HR of LeMans GT-R LM Nismo race car and has its own unique aero components and over-fenders, along with Nismo wheels…

Proof that this is the rear deal with a plaque denoting that it is in-fact a Nismo-produced 400R, this one the 22nd model…

The engine was still an RB26DETT but upgraded with forged internals, larger bore and stroke, and twin N1-spec turbos. This Nismo-built RB26 was known as the ‘RB-X GT2’ engine and made 400HP, hence the ‘400R’ in its nomenclature…

While I was studying Nissans, famed driver Nobuteru Taniguchi was interviewing my friend Hiroshige Kikuchi from Mode Parfume about the new GaMu kit and hard-top for a television show…

I always like capturing the behind-the-scenes perspectives of these types of photos because you can see the crowd and all of the glitz and glamour that comes with it…

Sometimes you gotta get in front of it though to get a POV of what everyone else is looking at. Here once again is X-Point model Yayo pulling double duty that weekend for both Mode Parfume and No Good Racing…

VR38DETT hand-built by Izumi Shioya from Nissan, one of only four engineers there who build their GTR motors…

The 4Laws full-carbon Porsche 930 on RS Watanabe wheels that we first saw unveiled at the 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon event…

I made sure to go back to the “VIP hall” to get some more photos of the Y’s Complete custom 20Celsior with Toyota Century front end conversion…

The front end of the latest generation Century is so square and blocky that it flows well with the boxy-shape of the UCF20 chassis…

Y’s Complete decal on the back window of Yoshinori’s 20Celsior…

This Captain America is NO GOOD…

On the third and final day of Osaka Auto Messe, the crowd finally got to get a look inside the engine bay of the ASLAN K-powered EG Civic…

Those of you who saw my visit to ASLAN last year will remember the extensively altered and stripped down engine bay of the Civic, including the K24 engine with individual throttle bodies that hook downward for maximum airflow coming from the front bumper vent and duct…

Here you can see how the air duct/box is mounted and what the ITBs look like inside…

OEM core support is gone and replaced with a custom aluminum support bar which holds a tucked radiator below…

18×11 Volk Racing TE37SL wrapped in Advan A050 with custom front fenders to house the massive wheels and an even larger front splitter…

I posted this on IG a week or so ago but did you guys know that this Civic started life as one of the first K-swapped EGs from Spoon Sports? It was once a Spoon democar and I believe you can even see photos of it when it was blue in a HyperRev magazine. It was eventually sold via auto auction to the guys from ASLAN and they recreated it into this insane time attack machine which is now one of the fastest FF Hondas in all of Japan…

As the final hours counted down at Osaka Auto Messe, the crowd surrounded the three Mode Parfume S2000s with Yayo front and center…

This guy was, well…interesting, and was there throughout the course of the three days at Auto Messe. He seemed to really enjoy what he was seeing…

And that is a wrap on the 2019 Auto Messe event. Will I be back in 2020? Who knows. ’19 version was fun though so I might consider it if there’s something big happening at the show next year. Thanks for looking folks. Hope you enjoyed the ongoing Japan car culture coverage…